Out Of Context Problem
Back in the world of Zenith, at the same time the armed conflict between Askr and Embla continued its progress, another unfortunate event took place in the "main continent".
Given the infinite nature of the time, the existence of a second war was perfectly conceivable and pretty much inevitable.
Human nature was to destroy themselves after all.
A silver-haired cyan-eyed man observed the horizon, in the direction to where the Muspellian army was going to arrive... in two or three days depending on the weather according to the spies.
His cyan armor was much more decored with gold compared to the ones owned by the generals or the normal soldiers who had simple copper. This helped to differentiate him easily as one of the highest-ranked members of the kingdom. The cyan, on the other hand, indicated he belonged to Nilf, unlike his allies in green from Nidavel.
Two soldiers in green and cyan armor wielding spears approached to him. "Monsieur! (Sir!)" yelled the one in cyan.
The man turned to see them.
"Dis-moi, comment est notre situation concernant les bateaux? (Tell me, how is the situation regarding the ships?)"
"Presque toutes les ressources sont chargées dans les navires. (Almost all the resources are already loaded on the ships)" commented the green soldier.
"Il y avait un peu des problèmes parce que certains charrettes etaient endommagés et elles bloquaient la route, mais tout devrait être preparé pour naviguer quand la nuit est arrivé. (There were some problems because some wagons were damanged and they were blocking the path, but everything should be ready to sail once the night comes)" the cyan soldier explained.
The man placed his hand on his chin and began to rub with his index finger as he asked. "Comment se déroule l'évacuation des réfugiés? (How is the evacuation of the refugees doing?)
"Les soldats les gardent sous contrôle, même s'il y a un conflit mineur (The soldiers are keeping them under control, even if there's some minor conflicts)" the Nilfian nodded.
The man sighed. Well, it was inevitable... this had already occurred since day one when these refugees and the Nidavelian army entered his nation asking for help.
All of them were families escaping from the war in search of protecting what they loved the most. In times of desperation, people just had a hard time cooperating… much more when this was going to be the second time they were forced to move so much.
As much as he wanted to be able to protect them in his territory, the land conditions of Nifl as a cold nation most of the year prevented an agriculture activity that could sustain a population that had increased by 40 percent thanks to all this disaster...
His only coherent option was to transfer these refugees through several trips on ships to Askr... along with several of his subjects and sister as an attempt to convince this nation across the ocean to help them... if he failed... at least he wanted them to survive.
The ships carried various shipments of gold and other types of valuable objects that could be sold... whatever it could be necessary to convince the Askrians authorities to accept the refugees.
Furthermore, this was also meant to be a warning.
He doubted Surtr's ambition would stop here...
It was logical the madman was going to try to conquest Askr and Embla afterward based on what he had heard about the fire lord.
How Askr decides to respond to this could determine the future.
"D'accord, bonne travail. (Right, good job)." he started to walk back to the port. "Ces montagnes devraient nous permettre de préparer une embuscade, avec beaucoup archers pour le soutien... nos magiciens devraient avoir un avantage naturel dans cet environnement... (These mountains should allow us to prepare an ambush, with many archers as support... our mages would have a natural advantage in this environment)." he stopped and considered if there could be something he was forgetting.
The probability of an attack through the ocean was unlikely. Muspell didn't possess a fleet due to the lacking of the necessity of having one as a result of they not having enemies to confront through the ocean. Embla and Muspell didn't use to have many political conflicts... or at least that's what the official story claimed.
Besides, the wyvern enemy subdivision had been seen attacking forts at the north...
In theory, everything should go according to the plan.
"Vous pouvez continuer avec vos obligations, merci beaucoup. (You can continue with your obligations, thanks a lot)" he mentioned.
"Oui! (Yes!)
"Oui, votre altesse! (Yes, your highness!)"
Once he was seeing the buildings of the town and he approached the port, he wasn't surprised to see his sister running towards him.
"Hríd!"
The prince of Nifl crossed his arms. "Fjorm."
Fjorm gave him a hug. "Je seulement veux te dire que... je suis preparée pour partir (I just wanted to tell you that... I'm ready to go)."
He nodded. "Es-tu sûre que tu ne iras pas oublier quelque chose? (Are you sure you are not forgetting something?)"
She shook her head. "Tout est en parfait état. (Everything is in perfect order)." her facial expression became sad as she sighed. "J'ai juste besoin de dire au revoir... (I just wanted to say goodbye..)"
Hríd hugged her back and patted her on the back. "Ne t'inquiète pas, nous sauverons Nilf (Don't worry, we will save Nilf)" he attempted to display his best smile at her.
"Oui...(Yes...)" she nodded.
"Je vais vaincre ce salaud fou, même si c'est la dernière chose que je fais (I'm gonna beat that lunantic bastard, even if that's the last thing I ever do)."
""Ne dis pas la s'il vous plaît... (Please don't say that...)" Fjorm gulped.
"Je ne peux pas te dire un mensonge... je ne sais pas si je vais suvivre... mais je suis sûr que je vais gagner! (I cannot tell you a lie... I don't know if I'm going to survive... but I'm sure I'm gonna win!)"
He placed a hand on her shoulder as they broke the hug. "Bonne chance, mon petite soeur (Have luck, my little sister)."
With that, he left to go to the war room.
"Bonne chance... frère... (Good luck... brother)" Fjorm had no option left but to walk in the direction of the ship which she was going to use.
Hours after that, the ships started their travel.
She sat near the edge of the deck as she waited.
She wanted to see the land until it finally disappeared on the horizon.
Fjorm had never left her country even a single time in her entire life... and she rarely wasn't present at the capital, Niflir... and now she had to serve as a diplomatic figure between Nifl, Nidavel, and a nation she barely knew anything about... even when she barely knew any Askarian.
Under normal circumstances, her mother would have allowed Gunnthra to be the one in charge of this mission... but since her health condition wasn't a good one at the moment...
Of course, some generals and civilians that knew the local language thanks to multiple commerce trips were going to help her... but she still was worried about the possibility that the Askarians would feel offended because of this.
She rubbed her forehead. The feeling of responsibility was being too heavy...
Feeling something grabbing her pants. Fjorm turned to see a little boy wearing some golden and green clothes.
She gave her most precious smile as she patted the little one. "Tu veux que je me dors avec toi? (Want me to sleep with you?)"
The little Fenri nodded. "Oui, s'il vous plait...(Yes, please...)"
She proceeded to hug him to comfort him after all he had been through.
Of course, another of her missions was this... to protect the second descendant of the now deceased Nidavelian king. At least one of them should reach adulthood to take the throne in the future. The last necessary thing was a crisis of succession once this was all over.
To say the kid was in good mood would be like trying to aim at a target and that the arrow hit a mountain located five kilometers away.
That day, a fleet of fifty transporter ships and at least two thousand people departed from Nilf in direction to the south.
Raigh felt he could see some signs of progress in the task his "stepdad" had left him in charge of since that day back at the world that represented the past of the world he came from.
Now as the temporal owner of this "lab" of the castle, the black mage hadn't wasted even a single second studying the curse that Embla had created to transform to what were legendary heroes into, technically speaking, nothing but puppets to kill.
Puppets who, as he could see, seemed to have lost all interest in trying to break free from the chains. Now they just looked like corps who didn't decompose.
Creepy... and awesome subjectively talking.
He had understood that the dark magic flow whose location was inside the heart could be extracted carefully through blood draws near that organ using those syringes. It explained the presence of five vessels filled with dark energized blood on the table.
But this was only half the job. How to get black magic out of the brain without secondary effects was still a mystery...
And although he had orders to find the cure for this... he also had been requested to find out if it was possible to replicate the influence.
Raigh just wondered how many backup plans his mentor desired to produce as he rubbed his forehead and growled...
It was already stressful to have to hide the quintessence... then El Proyecto Negro was included... and now he also aspired to add a mental manipulation program to the list?
Well… since his "stepdad" told him that he wanted to be so fucking prepared for every single outcome to the point he could be acknowledged as Zordon, whatever that the heck that meant, he probably should have mentally prepared better for this.
Although of course, had they had their personal underground lab where to hide all these "questionable" experiments instead of using just coffins for the task... all this would be much more tolerable.
All this made him remember the experiment with the flies. He took a look at the said thing while sitting.
As predicted, feeding with such an exaggerated amount of quintessence to one of them ended up killing it faster than usual. The second one had already perished because of natural causes... while the third one was still flying inside the container.
Now the question was how much extra time it was going to live.
Raigh only hoped that the day when sufficient funds were received to build this laboratory outside the castle would come soon.
But returning to the subject of repairing minds.
He approached the puppet Florina and placed his fingers once again on her forehead to analyze the dark magic on her brain.
He wondered if he was ready to attempt something on the brain...
Had he knew what had happened to his stepdad's mind as a result of being careless manipulating flows of energy crossing the brain... he probably would have preferred to wait a little more...
One of the newer members of the order of heroes was walking in the direction of the training ground.
He was feeling particularly pressured to start training.
As much as he wanted to help the Askarians with their problems, the truth was that his current motivation to join this group and fight in this war was rather… selfish?
He had to make sure he didn't die through the way though...
Once he was at said place, he didn't have to look around much time to find someone to challenge.
"Would you mind train with me, prince Alfonse?"
Alfonse, having been staring at apparently the "void", backed off a bit as his train of thought got interrupted. "Oh! Um..." the prince didn't have to analyze much to identify this hero. "Lord Seliph."
"I'm sorry if I scared you." Seliph bowed to apologize.
Alfonse took a few seconds to answer. Although he had already gotten used to training with the princess of Ylisse… this was somewhat due to the serious nature that she used to display to him "It's okay. I... was lost in my thoughts."
"If you're busy I can find someone else." Seliph offered, preparing to leave.
"Well… Lady Lucina is not here, my sister decided to see if she could visit Mom and Commander Anna is still filling out and handing out papers regarding what happened in the World Of Blazing. I guess I don't have anyone else to train with. " Alfonse scratched the back of his head.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that." Seliph certainly didn't want to be lazy.
It was true that he had been told that he would be able to return to the same moment in time to which he was summoned... but since his responsibilities back in his world were too important... he wanted to return as strong as possible.
it was disappointing that he was the only one of his group who had been summoned. This could have been an extraordinary opportunity to receive special instruction from legendary heroes and thus form a powerful squad to fight the Grannvale empire… Larcei would certainly have appreciated the chance.
The two grabbed simple training swords plus some shields and prepared to face each other.
"Since I don't know your strength, I would like to ask you to do not to hold back, please," Seliph commented.
Alfonse inclined his head a little "Just a question. Do you want me to try to go full offensive, or do you prefer to start the sword dance yourself? I ask since my style is usually more oriented towards defense than speed "the Askarian asked
"Quite the opposite of what I'm used to combating, I suppose... although more similar to what I usually do." Seliph considered that since Alfonse had probably already trained with heroes, it was an obvious thing to assume that Alfonse would be stronger than him... so he wanted to get an idea of what he was up against. "I will attack first."
"Understood." Alfonse placed his shield better to cover himself.
As expected, they remained immobile as they tried to predict the possible actions of the opponent.
Seliph attempted to imitate as best as he could the style of Larcei through a quick descending slash, as fast as he could.
Alfonse didn't need much time to react and block said attack with his shield, but Seliph continued attacking with different slashes. From down to up, from left to right, and more things like those until the prince of light decided to attempt something different.
He bashed with the shield.
Alfonse moved to the left to avoid getting a direct hit on his face, and even though he tried thrusting to counterattack, Seliph managed decently to avoid the sword by jumping back, he then just needed to push Alfonse's sword with his own.
It was Alfonse's shield that pushed Seliph's sword to block the obvious counterattack.
Both stopped a moment before continuing their "dance".
This time, Alfonse took the first step by being the first one to attack ten times.
Seliph wasn't being unsuccessful at blocking them, but he had to admit those were very strong impacts.
Or perhaps the answer was that he was weak.
Seliph was forced to take some steps back before simply dodging by jumping when the prince of Askr decided to thrust again.
Alfonse had to react quickly when several slashes were causing him trouble. This forced him to jump to the right in order to buy some time to regain control of his weapon.
Seliph certainly didn't feel secure when Alfonse gave a more determined facial expression.
His fears came true when, although the number of attacks he received had been reduced... they were much stronger and more unpredictable.
A quick thrust followed by a shield strike that this time did manage to hit him in the face was just enough to allow Alfonse to knock him down as he failed to block another thrust.
Seliph dropped his weapons as he had to place his hand on the stomach.
"You win this time." Seliph nodded as he proceeded to sit down, his hand still in that position.
"Sorry about that..." Alfonse grimaced.
He felt that something was wrong. Fighting a hero like Seliph, even in training...
"By any chance were you holding back your strength?" The Prince of Askr could only assume that the Prince of Light was not taking him seriously.
"Eh? ... I wanted to ask you that very question, actually." Seliph made a noise of pain as he accepted Alfonse's hand to get up.
"... I don't understand... I mean, I was able to fight the Exalt Chrom on equal terms... in theory, but... it felt like you lack a lot of strength despite being a legendary hero."
Seliph shook his head and rubbed his forehead. "Listen, I don't know what kinds of things they say about me in the history books but… right now I'm not that strong. I accepted this mission because it would allow me to gain strength and experience so I can start my war adequately against the empire once I return."
Alfonse's eyes widened and he began to nod slightly. "Oooh, I understand. My apologies, I thought I was facing the Seliph who became the new king of Grannvale. " Alfonse felt foolish for a moment, he must have deduced something was odd since the moment Seliph was summoned without having Tyrfing in his hands... although if he thought about it, Corrin was not wielding her Yato either.
This information made a very strong click in Seliph's mind. "So… did I actually manage to beat Arvis? Did I avenge my father's death?"
Alfonse had to give an uncomfortable expression. He had spoken without thinking. "Yes…"
"So… there must be records of how I won all my battles… right? Could you explain them to me?" The interest of the prince of light was quite remarkable.
"I'm not sure if it is a good idea for you to know the full circumstances… mainly because the existence of infinite timelines implies that, even if I gave you every single detail, some of them may vary one way or another. Even now I don't completely agree with Kiran about not sending Maria back…"
Alfonse, at that moment, remembered the fact that his actions could have doomed a world...
"It's better than having nothing," Seliph commented, then he got interested in certain detail. "Maria? ... who is she?"
"It's hard to explain, but let's say her absence from her home would cause trouble for one of Hero King Marth's rivals." Alfonse crossed his arms.
Seliph rubbed his chin. "I see. But back to the previous topic. " He grabbed the practice weapons again. "I would like at least to know the most relevant events."
Alfonse prepared himself to fight again. "Well ... I suppose it wouldn't hurt if you know about Prince Julius and Princess Julia before than usual..."
Seliph could only guess that those must be Arvis's children.
"And I suppose knowing about Thracia beforehand would allow you to plan better... just make sure that Princess Altena doesn't die as a result of this."
Thracia?
Seliph could only guess that this would be a very long story.
"And then... then..." Nino placed her hand on her green locket as her face turned red due to embarrassment.
Although she had asked only Sumia for advice, it was inevitable that this problem would become a conversation topic between Lilina and Florina once they had partially recovered emotionally after... that event...
Although perhaps also talking about her romantic life allowed them to help them distract from it...
"And then?" Florina crossed her fingers near her chest.
Nino's red face was legendary. "He gave me a soft peck..." she had to close her eyes and look away as she said that.
Sumia scratched her cheek. "True, you mentioned that."
"That was very cute." Lilina, hearing all this story, was remembering many beautiful moments with Roy.
Nino blinked several times. "After that… I don't know, he started behaving erratically again… and then he ran away."
"Maybe it was a feeling of embarrassment. When one has near-death experiences, it is normal to let your true feelings display when, in theory, you want them to be kept a secret. " Sumia then approached the young woman and placed her hands on Nino's shoulders. "Now I want you to answer some questions."
Nino gulped. "And what are those?..."
"Whenever you see him or you imagine his face, does your heart start racing? as if it's about to get out from your chest?"
Nino had to think for a few seconds. She ended up negating. "I'm not sure... I mean, right now, yes, but... before that event..." Nino closed her eyes again. "Even now... I feel mostly confused."
"Do you feel that you need to be by his side?"
Again, it took her some time to figure out what to say. "No... I mean, the idea of living with him doesn't sound bad, however..."
"I see." Sumia nodded. "Finally, do you think he's more handsome than other guys just because he's... well, him? "
"Eh ..." Nino couldn't lie about something like this. "The truth be said... no."
Florina put a finger on her lip. "I understand you. Mark is not the most handsome man either. "
Lilina scratched her hair. "And he now looks better. When I met him... he wasn't that thin."
Sumia reflected on what she had heard. "Very well." she ensured her eyes and Nino's were watching directly at each other.
"I'm gonna tell you what I concluded, whatever you do after that is up to you, do you understand?"
Nino nodded, the blush on her cheeks didn't seem to want to disappear.
"I could say without fear to be wrong that he's completely in love with you." Sumia patted her. "Even if he hasn't fully realized it and he wants to deny it, it's pretty evident." she commented, remembering when Nino told her they had visited a jewelry store and he said Nino wasn't his girlfriend. "Now, the fact he loves you does not mean you return those feelings with the same intensity."
So she wasn't in love... Kiran was the one that was in love with her.
Nino felt a little better now that she had an answer.
"How you want to respond to his feelings for you?" Sumia smiled as she imagined one of those stories she liked to write and read in books. "Do you want to give him a chance?"
Nino placed her hands on her face. "I... I don't know! I never imagined this could occur... I thought he was going to be my new brother... not my boyfriend!"
"Telling the truth, I wasn't expecting this." Florina commented. "Especially now that... he and Mark are one now?..." the concept was still quite confusing for the Elibian pegasus knight. "I mean... Kiran is practically a reflection in the mirror of Mark..." The fact that she had always imagined that Mark and Lyn would end up together didn't help.
"Do they truly look that much alike?" Nino scratched her hair.
"Don't you remember Mark?" Florina was surprised. As far as everybody knew, this Nino had already lived the final battle against Nergal.
"Well... I suppose Atenea looked like Kiran... but the tactician I remember is a woman." Nino explained. It didn't help that her old friend's hairstyle was so different.
"Oh." Florina nodded slowly.
"I guess it's just one of the many possible variations of the timeline." Lilina guessed.
"Regardless of whether this is expected or not," Sumia began to speak. "You don't have to answer right now. But I want you to know that if you decide to accept their feelings, I am here to give you more advice."
"Me too." Florina came over to give her friend a hug. Nino gladly returned it. Sumia had to move a little so this could happen.
"I will try to help as much as I can." Lilina scratched her cheek. "Although it would be strange if my godmother is one of my friends." Again, the idea that Mark and Kiran were now one caused very strange situations.
"Stranger than being a similar age to your mother?" Sumia commented.
"Touche..." Lilina shrugged.
"I ... uh ... I don't know what to say ..." Now it was Nino's turn to cross her fingers.
"Relax, whatever path you choose. We will help you. " Florina assured.
"Definitely. I cannot miss the conclusion of this story. " Sumia started looking for a book among her things. Either a novel or her diary "Although I suppose I will have to tell Robin that Kiran already has someone in his heart." She sighed. "This brings back memories... I guess."
"Robin?" Nino inclined her head a little.
As I had mentioned before, the Nilfian's language was going to be represented with French. I tried my best to make sure it is correct... but probably a native speaker is gonna tell me: X detail is not said that way because of Y and Z factors. If that's the case, your cooperation would be very appreciated.
It is mentioned in the story of book 2 that Surtr destroyed another nation before reaching Nifl... but they never mention its name, where is it and there's not a single character from that nation... so I decided to make some world-building. If you remember correctly, I once commented where, based on the map that of Zenith that the game gives to us, I decided the nations would be located. Nilf is at the north of Askr and in the middle of Nilf and Muspell is where that other unknown nation is. The thing about the portal to Nilf always seemed bullshit to me so that thing does not exist here.
I named it Nidavel based on the nine worlds of the Norse mythology.
Anyway.
I guess some of you didn't remember Seliph got summoned. Well, I intentionally made that fact forgettable (just a single line) because back then he was the forgotten one by IS since he didn't have an alt. Now that's not the case anymore, but I also took my time and watched a video of eight hours to learn about the story of the Genealogy Of The Holy War. My thanks to the youtube channel Chi Montana for uploading that video... I mean, that game's maps are insanely big... I don't think I have the patience to complete that game even though the story is just as awesome as Three House's one.
Although I'm being kinda hypocrite since I'm now playing Advance Wars by web and the map I'm playing is just as big as those... but hey! AWBW is a multiplayer email-chess game! it's not the same!
Anyway, expect characters from those games (Three Houses and Genealogy Of The Holy War) to arrive in the next chapters. I have in mind interactions between Raigh and a special one XD.
Let's answer reviews (finally... *insert here some tears):
Goldenyoshistar1
I wouldn't like a golden ending, I just wish TWSITD weren't such a big fucking plot hole. In Terminator sometimes I had trouble thinking humans could beat Skynet... but this is even worse!
ragingthunder88
Eh... are you sure that's a good idea?
See you next time!
